The Earliest Mention of the Aurora Borealis

Abstract

THE fallacy of trusting for scientific information to any other than a recognised scientific source, cannot be better illustrated than by Mr. Pocklington's letter in your issue of Nov. 3. He there seems to thinks that the statements of the editor of a volume of popular poems on a matter of science are worthy of notice, and therefore thinks it worth while to inquire whether or not it is true that no aurora borealis ever appeared before 1715. The absurdity of such a rash statement is so apparent that it seems almost superfluous to show it. In 1754 a book was published by M. de Mairan, entitled, “Traité Physique et Historique d e l'Aurore Boréale,” in which he collects from all the writers, ancient and modern up to that date, accounts of all the Auroræ Boreales which had been seen. Their total number amounts to 1,441 between the years A.D. 583 and 1751.